Amanda, here. I have a few writing books I'd like to trade (for other writing books, if possible), if anyone in the group is interested. I should be at this month's critique meeting to make the trade.

1. Building Fiction: How to Develop Plot and Structure, by Jesse Lee Kercheval. This book has quite a bit of good basic advice for fiction writers, and excercises at the end of every chapter. I liked it, but I don't think I'll be reading it again.

2. The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells, by Ben Bova. I haven't read this in years; science fiction isn't my main squeeze anymore, so I can't remember how good (or not good) this book was.

3. Aliens and Alien Societies: a Writer's Guide to Creating Extraterrestrial Life Forms, by Stanley Schmidt. Same as above, it's been too long since I read this to remember if it was any good.

I also have a copy of Grave Intent, by Deborah LeBlanc, who spoke at the writer's conference in Amarillo. I would be willing to trade that too.

What I'm interested in: I would like to trade the writing books for writing books, but would also trade them for something by Bob Mayer (he spoke at the conference, and I'd like to see where he's coming from). I also would like to read Deborah LeBlanc's Family Inheritance. Other than that, my current genre interests are mysteries (not so much the Patricia Cornwell-style ones, though, and I'm particularly interested in Raymond Chandler right now.) and Christian fiction (not romance).

My email is crum_amanda(at)hotmail(dot)com (except with the relevant symbols replacing what's in parenthesis.